On Thursday, The New Saints Academy welcomed Youth Empowerment Mentoring (YEM) to Park Hall Stadium.

 YEM, who specialise in empowering and supporting young people, was set-up by Tristian Griffiths last year. More information about YEM and the fantastic work they do for young people can be found here https://yementoring.com/.

 Tristian joined us for the whole afternoon and evening, delivering workshops to our U19s, U14-16s and U10-13s.

 Some of the areas we covered on the day were mental health, well-being and key life-skills, such as resilience. All of the workshops were highly interactive and the engagement from the lads was great.

 Reflecting on the day, Tristian of YEM commented:

 “We had the privilege of delivering empowerment presentations to The New Saints Academy.

 “We focused on resilience and mental strength, the goal was to help the lads start to build the mental skills needed both on and off the pitch. Sport gives us so many chances to link between life and the game!

 “I have to applaud The New Saints for taking such an interest in the mental health of their young players. A very impressive set-up and really great group of coaches.”

 Academy Operations Manager, Kieran Lee-Birch added:

 “We are constantly looking for ways to support, empower and develop our lads, both as people and players.

 “Weekly / daily well-being forms are in place to help monitor mood, fatigue, sleep and stress. Coaches, our medical staff, and other support staff check these regularly, and based on results we have processes in place to support.

 “Tristian approached some potentially difficult topics and conversations superbly, some of our lads have already reached out to him so the workshops have already been successful.

 “Tristian did not only focus on empowering and supporting our lads, but also gave advice on how they can support each other.

 “Being a teenage lad is so hard, they have a lot going on and different things to consider, everyone needs to know our staff and their teammates are always available to listen and support.

 “The Life-Style Management workshop was the third of our TNS Life-Skills programme. We have already delivered Social Media and Nutrition workshops, we also have plans to deliver workshops on Recovery, and Career and Finance amongst others.”

 On behalf of us all at The New Saints Academy, we would like to thank Tristian and YEM for their knowledge, advice and support. We look forward to working closely with them in the future.